Unexpected

As I mentioned in January, my mom's yellow Labrador had puppies.  We didn't know she was even pregnant.  My parents had someone watch the dogs when they came up here to help us move in early November and apparently, Remy was in heat and one of the male puppies figured out how to use his equipment.  Remy began getting rounder and rounder, which is how we found out she had mated.  However, a dog's gestation is only supposed to be 63 days, plus or minus a couple days.  Remy's 63 days came and went and no puppies.  In fact, she was so overdue that we figured she was having a false pregnancy.  Finally, SURPRISE, 72 days after she was probably impregnated, 10 wiggly puppies arrived.

I have been reading mamapundit's posts from last summer, shortly after her 18 year old son passed away.  One night, she was sleeping when she heard her husband cussing.  She went out to investigate and found that their two "male" guinea pigs had mated.  You can read the whole post here.

Her post reminded me of a situation that occurred when I was about 7.  My grandmother worked as a manager in the business area of a large Goodwill Industries.  One morning, when she arrived at work, she was told that someone had dropped off two male gerbils overnight.  Goodwill doesn't accept living things, so obviously, they couldn't resell the gerbils and they don't make shelters for rodents.  Because we had just recently had to give away our dog, my grandmother decided that I should be the proud owner of these two gerbils.

One day, when my mom and I got home from school, I saw tiny pink critters in the gerbil cage.  Apparently, one of the "male" gerbils was female and they procreated, thus the extra critters.  They were very, very little, very pink and very naked.  They are born with no fur and their eyes are fused shut.  We raised them and then at some point gave them away.  I'll always remember how shocking it was to look into the cage and see more gerbils than I expected.